Rumours Take Kayayee Off Streets

Accra streets and the business district especially, were without the services of female porters popularly known as 'kayayee' for a while on Monday.

A rumour had gone round that President Kufuor was going to inspect the ecological work currently going on at the Korle Lagoon and also talk to the residents of surrounding areas like Konkonba Market and the notorious Sodom and Gomorrah.

Some of them had earlier been told that the much talked about relocation of 'kayayee' was at last coming on. When The Accra Daily Mail went round the business district of the city there were only a few daring 'kayayee' carrying loads. They told The Accra Daily Mail that they live outside Konkomba Market. Around UTC Departmental Store some Dagomba youth were seen ordering daring porters to drop their loads and return to the Konkonba Market where all of them were supposed to congregate. They even threatened to flog them should they defy the order. At the time of filing this report in the afternoon, the youth at the market were preventing those who had not managed to sneak out from doing so. Entry into the place was also being restricted. One of the young men told The Accra Daily Mail that they wanted the president to have an idea of their numbers so that he would have a re-think of re-locating them to another place.

Another one said the porters had been asked to stay at the market to tidy up the place for the president's visit. Perhaps it was a ploy to get the porters do some tidying up.

The plight of 'kayayee' has for some time been raised by a number of NGOs but so far their numbers in the streets of the city have not diminished.

Their relocation has often been raised but no action has been taken in that direction. In the last administration, a date was even fixed for their forced relocation with elaborate plans like the provision of ambulances to cater for injuries should forced expulsion be resorted to.

At the end of the day however, the residents of Konkomba Market and Sodom and Gomorrah have continued to stay put.

A few months ago some government officials including Honourable Theresa Tagoe, Deputy Minister for Works and Housing visited the Konkomba Market with a view to interacting with the residents and to convince them on the need to relocate them so that the ecological work currently going on will not be interrupted but to no avail.